Russia Turns On Commercial 5G in 16 Cities, Leaving iPhones Out

Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development has announced the commercial launch of fifth-generation networks. The service went live in 16 cities in its first phase and now reaches roughly 10 million people. Only Android phones can use it.

The networks were switched on by the country’s four largest carriers—MTS, Beeline, MegaFon and T2. All four went live in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg. MegaFon and MTS cover Novosibirsk and Kazan, while Beeline and MegaFon split Samara. MegaFon is the only carrier running 5G in Veliky Novgorod, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod and Tver. T2 offers the service in Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, Perm and Chelyabinsk, MTS in Ufa and Beeline in Yaroslavl. Independent virtual operators did not make the list — Russia’s regulator reserved 5G rights for Yota and Rostelecom earlier in September.

For now the networks run on spectrum originally allocated for 4G. The ministry expects this to add 20–25% to network capacity over the next few years. All four carriers also received equal slices of the 4.63–4.99 GHz band, free of charge. Officials say the even split is meant to keep competition alive and tariffs affordable.

iPhone owners face two separate problems. The first one is on Apple, which has not added Russian carriers to its list of supported networks. Without a carrier profile in iOS, an iPhone never switches to 5G and stays on 4G even where a compatible network is running nearby.

The second issue is the spectrum itself. Most countries build mass-market 5G in the n78 band (3.3–3.8 GHz), but in Russia that range is held by the military and other state systems. Carriers there will rely on n79 instead—mainly the same 4.63–4.99 GHz slice. Support for that band is far from universal, and not only on Apple devices.

The ministry is working on bringing 5G to another 50 cities by the end of the year. Beyond faster mobile data, it is counting on the networks for industrial automation and telemedicine. Other targets include driverless transport, robotics, smart-city systems and connected sensors and meters. Minister Maksut Shadayev said 4G already covers 90% of Russia’s populated territory and that 95% of mobile subscribers use it every day. Fifth-generation networks, he noted, are significantly faster, which matters most to heavy urban users.